Scientists are watching a new species of bird evolve in real timeA new finch species has been observed evolving in the space of just two generations, challenging the general consensus that evolution is a slow process involving hundreds of thousands of years.

For the first time, scientists have observed the rise of a completely new species in the wild after tracking Darwin’s finches living on Daphne Major – a remote island in the Galapagos archipelago.<snip>The new species, which the Grants named the Big Bird, came into existence after a resident female medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis) mated with an island newcomer known as the large cactus finch (Geospiza conirostris).

Their mating initiated the so-called new “Big Bird lineage” which now consists of roughly 30 individuals.

Dr Rosemary Grant said: “The novelty of this study is that we can follow the emergence of new species in the wild.

“Through our work on Daphne Major, we were able to observe the pairing up of two birds from different species and then follow what happened to see how speciation occurred.”